The daughter of a woman killed by an abusive partner after serious failings by Essex police has spoken of her anguish following the double murder this week of Christine Chambers and her child in an almost identical case.
Celia Peachey told The Guardian she was staggered when she learned that another woman who had reported a similar history of domestic violence to police in Essex, had lost her life. "It angers me that nothing seems to have changed within Essex police. They apologised to us, but an apology means nothing if they don't learn any lessons," she said.
The murder of Chambers and her two-year-old daughter, Shania, on Monday came just six months after the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) found that the Essex force had failed Peachey's mother, Maria Stubbings, 50, who was strangled to death by a violent partner, and warned the force to improve its response to domestic violence.
Despite several government reviews, a report two years ago by the Association of Chief Police Officers and repeated inquiries by the IPCC into failures by forces across the country, the number of cases in which women are killed following repeated contact with police about domestic violence shows no sign of falling.
Some 100 women – and a few men – are killed each year by an abusive partner, which the domestic violence charity Refuge puts down to an institutional failure by police to take the crime seriously enough. "Unlike other crimes, domestic violence is predictable and preventable," said Sandra Horley, the chief executive of Refuge.
The killing of Chambers, 38, and the murder of Stubbings in 2008 bear remarkable similarities. In both cases police were aware of a history of serious violence but both women were killed shortly after making desperate calls for help.
"The fact that this has happened to another family so soon after the IPCC criticised Essex police about the way they failed my mother is absolutely disgusting, to be honest," Peachey told The Guardian.
"We'd like to suggest now that money should be spent on prevention and training to protect the living rather than wasting money on these expensive inadequate inquiries into the dead."
Six months after the IPCC report, the three officers recommended for disciplinary action have yet to face a hearing and remain in their jobs.
The IPCC has launched a new inquiry into the Essex force over its handling of contact with Chambers, who for two years had made police reports of violence by her partner, David Oakes, 50. In the fortnight before she was murdered at her home, Chambers had handed more than 100 threatening text messages to the force. Oakes is under police guard in hospital suspected of carrying out the fatal shootings this week.
Peachey said her thoughts and sympathies went out to the Chambers family.
"I think together we are stronger and they need to know that they are not alone," she said. "What has happened this week just makes me want to fight harder for changes."
The IPCC found in December that her mother's death at the hands of a former partner, Marc Chivers, was "predictable and preventable" and the force had let her down badly.
Stubbings had suffered months of violence at Chivers's hands, which was known to the police. After one particularly serious attack, he was convicted of common assault, given a four-month prison sentence and categorised by the police and other agencies as a "very high risk perpetrator".
But on his release from prison, police removed a panic button installed in Stubbings's house.
Less than two months later – in December 2008 – Stubbings phoned the Essex force to say she suspected Chivers of breaking into her home and she was scared. But the incident was not logged as domestic violence, and the police operator took down the wrong address for her, which meant alerts about the risk did not flag up.
A further catalogue of serious errors meant the police twice failed to check if she was safe. It was only when a senior officer became concerned and sent officers back to her address that Stubbings's body was found in her home. Chivers was jailed for life last December for her murder.
Essex police said it could not comment on the Chambers case as an inquiry was ongoing.
A spokesman said the force had accepted there were serious failings in the way they had dealt with Stubbings. They said a comprehensive programme of work had begun in the force following the IPCC investigation into events leading up to her death.
But it is understood that the force is fighting the IPCC findings and has questioned whether the officers involved should be disciplined at all. The IPCC is now reviewing its report.
Rachel Cerfontyne, the IPCC commissioner responsible for Essex, said: "I do understand why this case led to comparisons with previous incidents and prompted concern that lessons have not been learnt."
Horley said she was "staggered" by the similarities of the cases.
"Up to two women a week are killed by a current or ex partner in this country. How many more women and children will be killed before we see real change?"
A deadly problem
Police say that the scale of domestic violence is enormous. Every year there are more cases, and every year recommendations are made.
Tania Moore, a showjumper, was killed by her fiance in 2006 after contacting the police six times. Last year Louise Webster was murdered by her partner in front of her 18-year-old son, whose 999 call was ignored.
Each year forces receive about 600,000 reports of domestic abuse. A crime has been committed in about 250,000 of these cases, and in around 130 cases women are killed. Chief Constable Brian Moore, the Association of Chief Police Officers' head of violence and public protection, said there was no model that could show which of the 600,000 cases would result in murder.
This month a pilot scheme will enable some forces to remove perpetrators from homes for 28 days.